As I write this, I hate myself a little bit for being the biggest blogging cliché around, and also because we spent part of the day in work discussing how our lives revolve around social media and the approval of others. That may seem pretty contradictory when I go ahead and blog about my goals for the year and then share them on every social media platform known to mankind, but as I see it, I’m not so much seeking approval as making myself accountable. If I make all of my grand plans in a secret diary, what is to stop me procrastinating?
As an added bonus, I see these goals as starting point for future blog posts. My fitness goals will undoubtedly make for any number of gym anecdotes, the books will lead to reviews, cooking to recipes, and well… if I have to explain the photography, you obviously haven’t visited this blog before!
So, now that I’ve justified to myself that I’m not an unoriginal bore of a blogger seeking approval, let’s see how my year is going to pan out.
Health and Fitness
It wasn’t so much a New Year’s Resolution as a realisation at 3AM one February morning that my diet and fitness regime had got completely out of control that led to join the gym and become a fully fledged member of the early-morning brigade. This year, I’m upping the ante, with the following plans:
- Bite the bullet and do all my weights and measurements, and either get my PT to put me through some sort of fitness assessment, or at least tell me what weights he has had me lifting in various areas of the gym. He doesn’t know this yet, but if he’s reading this, I sense a text coming my way!
- Take regular progress photos – I swear that I’m going to do this every time I start a health kick, and every time still find myself rummaging in the archives for an old photo of myself to compare, so this time I’m committed. It’ll stop me from doing the guilty conscience “I’m certain I’ve put weight on” drill with my long-suffering mum if nothing else.
- Start filling out MyFitnessPal again, not so much for the calorie count, but more so I’m accountable to myself for those sneaky biscuits in the office.
- Try to be better prepared with meals, even if that just means cooking and freezing a few dinners each Sunday to keep me going throughout the week.
- Be able to do a decent pull-up – it may sound weird, but I’ve always wanted to be able to do it, so this is the year.
House
In case anybody missed my shouting about it, I’ve got a house! Four months down the line and I’m still only a little bit excited about it… honest. I was pretty determined that it would look exactly how I wanted it to before I moved in, so as far as decorating goes, there’s not too much still to do, but this year I would like to finish all of those little things that never get done. I’ll not list these ones, because it’s things like buying a coffee table and a lamp, buying a storage unit for the mountain of Lush products residing on the corner of my bath and stocking my kitchen properly, but let’s just say I want to sort my life out in the house department.
Books
“I hope you’ve been reading! Never lose your reading, now Lauren” – my granny’s voice echoes in my ears as I think of how bad my reading habits have become. I used to take pride in how much I read, on my ability to shut off and discover a new world.My granny completely irrationally blames Harry Potter for the widespread ruination of millennials’ reading habits, but somehow I think its more to do with the curse of Facebook, Instagram and my iPhone. I can’t remember the last time I read a book, and I don’t even have so much as a bookshelf in my house. So this year, I’m starting again, with at least two books a month… I used to be able to read a book in two or three days, but that was before I perfected the art of procrastination. Any book recommendations would be amazing (fiction preferably)’.
Photography
Last year, my trusty Olympus PEN EPL-7 helped me to rediscover my love of photography. I got it for Christmas in 2015, because I was tired of carrying around the cumbersome Canon SLR that I’d had since I was 16. Although ironically, since helping to take some photos at an event last week (which turned out surprisingly well), I’m starting to think that my big bulky camera mightn’t be so bad after all, and I have considered investing in an external flash. Go figure.
This year, I want to dust off my Photoshop skills – I was a big Photoshop geek back when I was a teenager. I would also love to join a photography club, but since the one I would like to join clashes with one of my Zumba classes, it could be tricky. But who knows what 2017 has in store!
GIRL ABOUT TOWN 